This invention relates to scintillation devices used in the detection and presentation of radiation data particularly radiation emanating from a radio-isotope injected into a patient which collects in an organ of interest such as the heart.
A scintillation scanner is an imaging device that consists of a collimator which discriminates between desired and undesired radiation, a scintillator, which converts the radiation into visible light, a light amplifier system which converts the light produced in the scintillator to an electrical current, and an electronic display system such as a cathode ray tube. During use, the detector moves or "scans" the area under study in a rectilinear fashion. Only radiation from the patient that passes through the collimator and reaches the detector is displayed.
A scintillation camera consists of a collimator made of a plurality of parallel holes, a scintillator, an array of light amplifiers and an electronic display system. In use, the camera is positioned over the area of interest and the collimator in this case allows only the radiation traveling along the center lines of the holes to strike the scintillator. Each scintillation is detected by the array of light amplifiers. The differential current from each of the amplifiers is electronically analyzed and thus the position of the scintillation is determined and then displayed. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,011,057 to H. O. Anger.
Multi-purpose systems, such as those described above, used for diagnostic purposes which function by detecting the location and quantity of a radioactive compound absorbed in an organ of interest in living bodies, specifically the human heart, have in the past been large, externally supported, detector mechanisms. These large detectors have had the problem of being fixed in space with respect to their external supports, while the patient being studied is in motion due to the necessity of the patient having to be placed in a physically stressful situation such as exercising on a treadmill. Procedures such as strapping the patient to the detector have proven to be of little value since they affect the ability of the patient to function normally and the strapping fails to hold the patient solidly to the detector.
The present invention is a small, hand-held device which does not require external, rigid supports and can be used to ascertain a two dimensional display of the organ under investigation.